Bump. Been 10 months since these prior posts - anyone have recent battery (charge-to-charge) and overall battery life experience to share? I did a search and found other similar threads, but none mentioned the problem with Sterling Tek batteries mentioned here. Curious if the problem has since been resolved satisfactorily.
Here are the links to some recent SterlingTek threads.
My experience was not good. It looks like SterlingTek may have solved
the problem with their supplier now, but I'm not willing to bother with them.
Their reputation has been good, but there was a recent problem, reported by
many people.
I was initially looking for batteries with more capacity (mAh) than the original Canon ones and ended up trying Delkin batteries. I have been very satisfied and have been using them whenever I needed additional batteries since 2006 (6 on a 350D and then 4 on 40D/5D; I need spares for trips during which I cannot recharge for long periods of time).
My 2 cents is that using non-Canon brands should not be a problem, provided they come from a reputable brand (you decide how you define "reputable"), or a brand with good feedback from users. What I would avoid systematically is no-name brands advertising unrealistically high capacities at ridiculously low price.
Has anyone using Sterlingtek (or other generic batteries) suffered the issue of the infamous ERR99 or other problems with their 40D? A case study would probably be impossible, but I'd be very interested to see what percentage of those with issues were using generic batteries versus OEM Canon versions. From what I know about batteries, even a very minor fluctuation in power output can damage sensitive electrical components.
This is an old post, but to date I've used B&H "Impact" house brand BP-511 batteries for my 10D, 20D, and 5D cameras without any problems at all.
"Power fluctuations" aren't really a battery issue--the only "fluctuations" in a battery are going to be downward.
A poorly made Li-Ion can catch fire or explode, but I've never heard of that happening with any branded 3rd party camera battery. In fact, the only report I've heard of a BP-511 battery catching fire has been with counterfeited Canon batteries (meaning batteries that have a fake Canon branding).
Actually, now that I think of it, the warnings from Canon didn't actually say one had caught fire--only that it might.
IMO, as has been stated, a battery branded by a company with a permanent presence should be fine. If there are any problems with it, those should be a matter of lesser lifespan.
I had two Sterlingtek and one OEM battery for my 40D. I sold the 40D and the OEM battery went with it, but I kept the two Sterlingtek. I charged both Sterlingteks fully before going to buy my 50D. Got the 50D, put a memory card in it, mounted my 70-200 f4 L IS lens and popped in one of the Sterlingtek batteries since the 50D's OEM one needed to be charged.
Started to walk home, shot maybe 10 pictures and noticed the battery indicator was down to 1/3 and flashing. This amounted to maybe 10 minutes of on-time on the battery. Walked another block, camera turned itself off. Wouldn't come back on more than momentarily, the camera considered the battery to be completely dead.
Got home, put the Sterlingtek battery in the 50D's charger. It blinked a few times and then went to steady ON on the LED charging indicator, which means the battery was fully charged. Mind you, it was only on the charger about 10 seconds before indicating fully charged.
I put it in the 50D and it said it was fully charged. I banged off about 100 exposures with IS on, still showed fully charged. The other Sterlingtek seems to be fine. The OEM battery seems to be fine. Dunno what caused the weird behavior, but I am not going out with just a Sterlingtek, I will use them as backup only.
I have more generic batteries than I know what to do with... some are 4 yrs old and still work perfectly well. They might have lost a little capacity but nothing obvious...if anything, the original Canon needs charging the most. And since the 4 generics together were cheaper than a new Canon battery I'd recommend generics....got mine from here:
Sterlingtek is every bit as good and so much cheaper that Canon batteries. You should also get their charger. It's very handy having a charger to leave at home and another in my camera bag.
